Dave Edmunds - From Small Things: The Best of Dave Edmunds

It's one of pop music's most enduring ironies: The caretakers of America's original rock and blues legacy have as often as not hailed from closer to London than to Louisiana. This 16-track collection of recordings by Welsh-born roots-rock acolyte Dave Edmunds deftly underscores the point with ever-upbeat aplomb, spanning four decades and seven record labels (the first such comprehensive anthology of his work) in the bargain. There's a remarkable 32-year gap between this album's opening cover of Rockpile cohort Nick Lowe's "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)" and Edmunds's breakthrough 1970 American hit, "I Hear You Knockin'," but his vibrant performances suggest that not only does the circle remain unbroken, it's scarcely been dented. Crucially, the rockabilly-besotted singer seldom let slavish devotion get in the way of his own considerable creative drive (the exceptions here are a Beach Boys-fetishized cover of "Do You Wanna Dance" and a precious take of the Everlys' "Let It Be Me" from the soundtracks of Porky's Revenge and Stardust, respectively). But his versions of Graham Parker's "Crawling From the Wreckage," John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night," and Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" amply display Edmunds's innate ability to make a song his own. He even rises above the patent, synth-driven production of Jeff Lynne on "Information" and "Slippin' Away," turning them into unlikely rockabilly-meets-new-wave successes. --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

this is rock and roll

This is so refreshing. You'll go a long way to find something catchier than "Girls Talk" or "Almost Saturday Night". It's what rock and roll was in its heyday. I miss it. Thank you, Dave Edmunds. January 9, 2008

A weird, luke-warm collection

Dave Edmunds is a great player who had a number of strong cuts, but like an earlier reviewer said, you're better served by assembling your own disc from the Dave Edmunds Anthology. My big wish would be for every cut that Dave Edmunds self-produced to be re-engineered. I find most of his vocal parts mixed way, way too nasal. For all that, at the same time, I find it impossible to stop shakin', movin' & groovin' to his late 70's-mid 80's work, and I think I'm going to dig out my Rockpile bootleg as soon as I'm done here. December 4, 2007

Great Collection

Excellent collection of songs. I would recommend this CD to anyone who likes traditional rock and roll. My only regret is I never saw Dave perform when he was on the tour. May 2, 2007

You can do better than this odd lot

Dave Edmunds was a fine songwriter and a capable interpreter of rockabilly classics, but this hodgepodge really doesn't do him justice. A single-disc best-of assortment is easy to assemble from The Dave Edmund Anthology (which I recommend), but beyond his excellent original hits (about half of this album), most people will have little interest in listening to lackluster covers, movie tracks, and Christmas music. January 11, 2007

Edmunds is very underrated.

This CD is a great single disc overview of Dave's career. I would have liked to have seen more stuff from his Swan Song days, but beggars can't be choosey. It's a great repesentation of the different types of music Dave has done over the 30+ years he's been doing it. And be sure to pick up Nick Lowe's best of as well as the one Roickpile CD if you lke this one. Both of those collections get 4 stars as well. February 18, 2006

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